Why do you think that?

SL should have followed the NRL's lead and had all teams & player's following a stringent lockdown process.

That would have been a sensible and decisive move - not moving a fixture by 24hrs... seeing that the current recommended isolation period is now 10 days it doesn't make any sense as we are still in a 7 day window.

Every year that passes the RFL & SL turns into more and more of joke sport.

I think they are two separate issues. They've done the only thing they could do with regards to rearranging the fixtures and keeping the season going. Those online who are throwing a hissy fit and demanding the season be cancelled aren't living in the real world - cancel the season and the sport is on death's door.

I do agree that there should be tougher restrictions on players with regards to social and leisure activities but the concept of a 'bubble' is illogical. What about food and medicine? What about the lives of family members?

Given the circumstances presented to them now, I think they’ve made the right call on moving swiftly to rearrange fixtures. They have to look at stricter measures being put on players going forward though if they’re to avoid more and more of these issues.

Agreed. I don't think we can be too harsh because a lot of them aren't being paid enough to justify the sacrifice, but I don't think telling them to stay out of bars etc is too much to ask to save the sport

I don't understand what difference the extra 24hrs will make tho? If that then took them out of 10 day recommended window then it would make sense, but it doesn't - it puts them at 8 days.

In regards to the bubble - I have no idea how it works. All I know is that the NRL have put really tight protocols (think they've called it Apollo) in place and it's worked. I know the Storm & NZ are based in hotels/outside of their normal locations, but as far as I'm aware all other players are living at their homes.

I'm not sure what you mean with the 24 hours - Salford and Hull have been taken out of action and the other clubs go on normal as far as I'm aware (providing the testing is all clear). The Wigan game has been postponed 24 hours presumably to give Sky 2 games on the Saturday and 2 games on the Sunday.

I don't think the COVID regulations for the two leagues are directly comparable - there have been far less cases in Australia and the recent outbreak is mainly confined to Victoria. Plus NRL players/coaches have been breaching protocol - it just looks like they were lucky in doing so that they didn't become infected and transmit it onwards. Plus even if players behave perfectly, a legitimate 'bubble' would essentially mean food is delivered to players' homes and they aren't allowed outside for fresh air/exercise outside of training and games. I would be stunned if that was the case in Australia - I doubt it is practical or reasonable.

Adam Pearson has been on the radio saying the original infection was likely caught by a player who went to hospital with a sick child (I'm sure no-one would argue that is an essential journey). What didn't sound great was the player coming into training already presenting with symptoms - as soon as that happens its common sense to stay home. All it takes is one mistake and big problems can occur.

Having two games Saturday and two Sunday will help avoid the ridiculous situation of teams sharing changing facilities on the same day as well. If that was an issue at Headingley, with two stadiums on site, then I shudder to think what the arrangements are at Saints and Wire. One bar of soap between all 10 teams maybe.

I mean moving the Wigan game back by 24hrs. If it's done for the TV then that's fine. I just assumed it was for safety pov, which didn't make sense.

The situation is different now, but how long has the NRL being going for? 10 weeks perhaps, so it was the same back then for them as it is now.

The main difference and the point I'm trying to put forward is that the NRL have put protocols in place to safeguard against things like this happening. Players might break the rules, but at least there's something in place to punish them with.

Again I'm not 100% sure on the details, but are are definitely in lockdown & bubbles - no bars, beaches, golf, coffee shops or restaurants etc. Seibold broke out of his bubble to deal with family issues and will need to self isolate for 2 weeks before he can return. Alfie Langer was caught having a few scoops with friends and was stood down for 2 weeks. [urlhttps://www.sportingnews.com/au/league/news/nrl-coronavirus-arlc-annouces-return-to-original-apollo-protocols-for-non-queensland-teams-as-covid-19-cases-spike/147g2nnx2pgrt16ec4wezlp241[/url.

I don't think it's too much to ask to put something similar in place here. Perfect example is with the guy from Hull - If that was the NRL then he'd have been told to lockdown for 2 weeks as he'd been to the hospital. None of this would have happened if we did the same.

I think all of that is spot on. As I said I do think there should be tougher restrictions on social and leisure activities and it would definitely have been sensible to ask a player to quarantine after a hospital visit. Probably my mistake associating your comment about an NRL player lockdown with some comments on social media complaining that the NRL have eradicated any risk of infection with bio-secure bubbles. Bubbles dont exist in this context and regardless of player's engagement in social activities there is always a risk as players and their families have to carry out essential activities outside of the sport.

Yeah sorry I forgot

Rouges obviously I appreciate your knowledge on the youngsters so what in your opinion does Hanley lack at the moment? Strength, defence?

Im probably guilty of hoping that the lad is ready rather than him being ready. I thought that he could play a similar role to French and keep some consistency in our approach of using French as our main threat in broken play.

No SOL again.

Always tends to be at least a month before you see him again when those dodgy calves/hamstrings go.

Be a real tough game this after their hiding last week I think.

At the minute with the restart I'm just happy to get the result and see an improvement on last week. Similar to the start of the season.

I think the ideal time to be hitting our straps would be the end of September (the new end of August basically) but as I've said elsewhere I still fear that our pack just isn't up to it.

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby- ... ow-2940958 I wonder if Jamie Peacock has any thoughts on this

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby- ... ow-2940958 I wonder if Jamie Peacock has any thoughts on this

Wigan's 21-man squad: Zak Hardaker, Liam Marshall, Chris Hankinson, Joe Burgess, Bevan French, Sam Powell, Willie Isa, Liam Farrell, Joe Greenwood, Morgan Smithies, Joe Bullock, Liam Byrne, Dom Manfredi, Mitch Clark, Jake Bibby, Harry Smith, Jack Wells, Ethan Havard, Jackson Hastings, Amir Bourouh, Joe Shorrocks

Id go

French
Mandfredi
Hardaker
Bibby
Marshall
Smith
Hastings
Byrne
Powell
Bullock
Farrell
Greenwood
Isa

Smithies
Clark
Havard
Borough

I was sat pondering the team earlier and I did exactly the same and put Isa in the middle. He’s sort of ended up in the second row via necessity over these last few seasons but early doors for us he played centrally quite a bit and the Widnes fans always said it was where he was at his best. The only change I’d made to that team would be to put Greenwood in the right sided slot. If he wants a place he’ll have to try and find it there because you can’t move Farrell from that left side.

Get Jack Wells in for Smithies . Wells had a good game for Toronto pre lockdown scoring after breaking the line 20 metres out . I've not seen Smithies break any lines despite his raw enthusiasm. Wells won't give as many pens away either

Smithies had a shocker last week but that’s his first in the top grade and hopefully he’ll put it behind him this week. I certainly wouldn’t drop him but by the same token I’ve been a huge fan of Wells for a long time and I’ve been really disappointed to see him struggle to overcome injuries and force his way through. There’s time for him to do that yet and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him play and not Greenwood on Sunday.

Could Wells be effective at prop? In the current format this may be a route into the the starting 17
I hope he can kick in after his injuries
I’m not going to criticise Smithies but Wells May well be a better prospect as his all round game may be better
Hopefully both will be regular first teamers going forward

Wells has played as a 'middle' quite frequently. Technically it may have been as a loose forward but it's the same role. I'd love to see him get a chance now as he's had rotten luck with his foot injury. He's not on our retained list for next season and I can understand why, but I'd love to see him get a chance, put in some good performances and change peoples minds. Whether that's as a middle or playing in the second row (freeing Isa to play in the middle).

He's got the size, he's great at breaking through gaps in the defence, can offload and has a good work rate. I just think he needs the chance to prove himself in SL as he's been so unlucky, first with missing a year through injury and then having his loan at Toronto cut short.

Speaking of our loans to Toronto, I'm assuming Ben Kilner is still at the club. Another player hit by injury but he looked really promising in pre-season. If he goes through this year without any game time it's going to be a real shame.

I seen that with the retained list about Wells but when he signed his new deal last year, it was reported as being for 2 years. I hope that is the case because I think he could be a guy a Saints, Leeds, Wire etc pick up and he then goes on to be a top class player.

After watching Catalans destroy Wakefield it puts more emphasis on tomorrow IMO. The win last week looks more lucky than deserved after that and given Leeds were taken to the cleaners last week by Saints, it really is a test for us to see where we really are. If we can’t put a poor Leeds side to the sword it’s worrying IMO.

Yeah today's result does not bode well.

We could always cling to the old "teams never back up after they've played Wigan" card.